Crisis report says prevention of homelessness is more cost-effective

Crisis has released a report into the costs of single homelessness in the UK.   The report finds that preventing homelessness is a much more cost effective approach than dealing with the social issues associated with homelessness.  The report uses four illustrative vignettes to explore how quickly costs can escalate when dealing with individual cases of homelessness and juxtaposes the costs of preventing homelessness in each case with the cost to the public purse of allowing this homelessness to persist for 12 months.  These vignettes are representative of the type of homelessness we deal with on a daily basis at Housing Rights and echo the experiences of many of the people who we help. 

Young homeless woman

In this scenario a 19 year old woman is asked to leave her family home and has exhausted all her options for sofa-surfing by the time she comes to the attention of homeless services.  Crisis proposes that a preventative approach would cost £1,558.  Crisis suggest that this approach, facilitated by a Housing Options team would involve

• immediate temporary accommodation in supported housing for four weeks
• an agreed temporary return to the family home for 6 weeks involving low intensity floating support to the young woman and her family. 

Crisis suggests that successful floating support intervention could minimise the disruption in the family home and encourage the young person into work.  In this scenario, the charity suggests that the young person could be in paid work within the year and able to move out of the family home independently. 

The alternative approach, suggested by Crisis is that the young person

• applies for homelessness assistance and is turned down as there is no evidence of priority need
• continues to rely on friends and family for support and sofa-surfs with no permanent home leading to a deterioration in her mental health
• becomes increasingly reliant on emergency homeless services
• begins to abuse substances as a means of coping with her mental health problems and becomes increasingly suspicious and withdrawn
• ends up hospitalised as  a result of her continued substance misuse issues and mental health problems leading to a spell in a residential detox programme. 

The cost of dealing with the young person's social needs are clearly much higher in this model, with Crisis estimating these at £11,733.

Male rough sleeper in his 30s

A man in his 30s loses his job, spirals into debt and ends up sleeping rough as he is not entitled to any statutory assistance, has no friends or family to assist and is unable or reluctant to stay in crash facilities.  

In the first scenario, Crisis suggests that the man engages with a floating support service.  His support worker is able to find him a suitable and affordable privately rented tenancy.  His floating support service continues for 12 weeks.  The support package includes debt counselling and the man enters into negotiations with his creditors to start repaying his debts.  Within 6 months he is able to find paid employment.  Crisis suggests this service would cost £1,426. 

The second scenario sees the man sleeping rough for six months, during which time he develops serious mental health issues and begins to misuse substances.  He is admitted to hospital twice after frequent visits to A&E.  He begins to engage in low level criminal activity.  As homelessness persists, his needs intensify and his dependency on alcohol increases.  He is referred to high-intensity homelessness services, but attempts to support him run into difficulties due to his high level support needs. He is engaged with health and homelessness services, but both services struggle to adequately treat him.   Crisis suggests the cost to the public purse of treating this man, including costs of administering the criminal justice system and the expense to health and social services providers, would be in excess of £20,000.

Man with learning disability who loses his current home

An adult son with learning disabilities has lived with his mother for years. When his mother dies, her son has difficulty coping and is unable to effectively manage and maintain the private tenancy in which he lived with his mother.   The landlord issues the man with notice to quit.  The man moves in with a friend temporarily, but this arrangement breaks down. 

Preventing homelessness in this case would cost £4,726, according to Crisis.  This would involve intervention by a local Housing Options team and an ongoing floating support service to the man.  The alternative suggested by Crisis is that the young man would be placed in an accommodation based homelessness service at a cost of £12,200.

Woman in her 20s escaping domestic abuse

The final case study in the report is that of a young woman fleeing a violent partner.  A preventative approach would cost approximately £1,500 and would focus on securing the woman's current home to ensure it is safe for her to continue living in.  The second scenario suggests that the woman moves to a refuge in another part of the country, loses her job as a result of her inability to commute and then moves back to her original town when she is tracked down by her ex-partner.  Crisis suggests that the combined cost of the refuge stay, counselling services and health services that this woman would need to access would be in the region of £4,668. 

You can read the full report and find out more about the work of Crisis at www.crisis.org.uk